August 2010 Edition - Radish Magazine

food
Physician, heal thyself
An Iowa City doctor grows her own good health
By Mary Crooks
When Dr. Terry Wahls of Iowa City was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 10
years ago, her doctors told her that functions lost from the disease would
not return. A few years after learning she had MS, she was using canes to walk and
often was confined to a wheelchair.
Wahls, an academic general internal medicine physician at a teaching hospital,
looked for alternative treatments but found no clinical trials to participate in
that might offer options for a better outcome. She began to study basic science literature
about MS and formulate ideas about why disability occurs. Wahls designed
a new treatment for her disease based on what she learned. She became convinced
that mitochondrial (nerve ending) failure drives the progression of MS and many
other health problems such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, and
many psychiatric disorders. Medications helped to control symptoms but rarely
restore normal functioning.
Based on her personal studies, Wahls made lifestyle changes that paid off
in amazing ways. She has exchanged her wheelchair for a bicycle and now often
Dr. Terry Wahls next to an aronia bush she cultivates in her backyard. (Submitted)
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rides it five miles from home to work at the VA Hospital and University of Iowa
Hospital. She is active in ways that leave people shaking their heads in disbelief
and admiration.
Wahls attributes her improved health to her changed diet, combined with
electrical stimulation of her muscles. She shares what she has learned with others
every chance she gets. “I now understand the profound connection between food
and health,” Wahls says. “Healing occurs when we eat foods that our mitochondria
and body need.”
“Daily servings of green leafy vegetables are a must,” Wahls shares. So are
brightly colored vegetables and fruits. She also recommends a reliable source of
omega-3 fatty acids, found in foods such as grass-fed meat, cold-water fish, and
flax seed.
When people ask about the cost of eating her recommended diet, she says
many of the foods can be grown for little or no cost in a small garden or in porch
containers. A visit to her yard confirms that she is doing that herself.
Wahls grows some commonly raised foods like leafy greens, strawberries, and
apples. She has also added lesser-known fruits and vegetables to her yard, such as
aronia berries, hardy kiwi, and sorrel, which are all perennial plants that come back
year after year. She reports that many flowers are edible and make delicious teas and
salad ingredients that can add to the quality of your diet. A pile of logs in her yard
has been inoculated with mushrooms, another tasty and nutrition-enhancing food.
‘I now understand the profound
connection between food and health.’
“Growing kale, spinach, carrots, strawberries, garlic, and so many of the other
foods that Dr. Wahls recommends is easy in our Iowa climate” says Fred Meyer,
director of Backyard Abundance. “I was delighted when I visited Terry’s yard and
saw the wide variety of foods she is growing.”
As part of its mission to teach ecological skills, Backyard Abundance has been
offering yard tours since its inception in 2006. “Anyone who attends these events
is in for a tasty surprise,” Meyer says. “We share delicious foods that you can grow
right outside your door.”
Backyard Abundance will be sponsoring an education session at 1 p.m. on
Aug. 21 that will feature a presentation by Wahls and Meyer followed by a tour of
Wahls’ backyard. Cost for the event is $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Those
who are interested in attending the yard tour but not the presentation will have the
opportunity to do so free of charge from 3 to 5 p.m.
For more information, visit backyardabundance.org.